1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a level adjustment circuit for adjusting the signal level of an audio signal, and more particularly for performing both digital level adjustment and analog level adjustment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, it was necessary to vary the output level in audio equipment, such as from a speaker, and an electronic volume control was thus employed to adjust the output signal level in accordance with a volume control knob or volume control button. The electronic volume control adjusts the signal level of the analog audio signal by analog processing in accordance with a volume signal generated from user operation.
On the other hand, in the processing of audio signals, a DSP (digital signal processor) is used to perform digital processing, such as for equalization and sound field correction. In this type of DSP-based digital processing, it is also possible to perform signal level adjustment, and the level adjustment is performed by digital processing in accordance with the volume signal.
In this manner, either analog processing or digital processing was employed in the past to adjust the audio signal level in accordance with the volume signal. The present applicant proposed in Japanese Patent Application No. Hei 10-278008 (not publicly known at the time of filing) an invention relating to a hybrid volume combining level adjustment based on analog processing and level adjustment based on digital processing. The technique of this application combines digital processing and analog processing in such a way that after an adjustment is performed by digital processing, analog processing is performed in case further adjustment is required. In this manner, a preferable level adjustment can be performed by combining the characteristics of analog processing and digital processing.
However, various techniques can be devised in combining analog processing and digital processing, and the preceding proposed technique is not necessarily preferable.
Furthermore, when adjusting the volume in this type of circuit, zero cross was detected and the amount of attenuation was varied at the time to prevent noticeably rough sounds from being produced. For this reason, a problem was that the circuit became complex due to the need for comparators and other circuit elements.